American Civil War
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Second Petersburg
Battle · Eastern Theatre
The Second Battle of Petersburg
June 15–18, 1864 · Petersburg, Virginia
Narrative
Commanders
At a glance
Outcome
1
Petersburg
The stolen march to the back door
After Cold Harbor, Grant slips the whole army across the James to seize the rail hub that feeds Richmond, while Lee looks the wrong way and Beauregard (South) holds an empty line by bluff.
2
June 15
The day the freedmen took the slaveholders’ wall
Hinks’s (North) USCT, many of them formerly enslaved, storm and carry the Dimmock Line that enslaved hands were forced to build. The cause of the war stands on the parapet, in blue.
3
June 15–16
The open door nobody walked through
Smith (North) stops at dark and Hancock (North), without orders, defers. Two corps stand outside an undefended city and wait for dawn, while Beauregard (South) digs in overnight.
4
June 17–18
The bloodiest minutes and the start of the siege
Piecemeal assaults fail, the 1st Maine (North) is annihilated, Lee finally arrives, and the open-field war gives way to a nine-and-a-half-month siege.
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